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mixing and mastering

Mastering is one of the many alluring pursuits that comprises an extensive music production process. While in the present times, a large number of artists are indulging in this procedure on their own, it is best if you leave the work for a professional, who not only have the adequate knowledge and proficiency but also possess the required paraphernalia.

However, for those musicians, who just would not listen, let me inform that although it seems easy, audio mastering is a challenging task to undertake. Generating optimal results is only possible through dedication, hard work and some necessary tips and tricks. Even though I cannot decide the effort that one is going to put into, let me update some of the essential tips that might be beneficial for individuals, who are trying their hands on professional audio mastering. Take a close look at them as they are mentioned below in points.

Excessive processing and special effects are not good for a track. If you are thinking that a bad mix could be turned into something exceptional through mastering techniques, let me warn that you are absolutely wrong. Mastering is all about polishing, it is not any kind of magic dust that would make your bad songs melodious.

Monitoring is extremely important because it is only through acute observation that you would be able to notice the minor flaws. Professional sound engineers have acoustically treated rooms and special headsets, which allow them to hear all the nitty-gritty of a track. Spectrum analysers are another tool used to measure the dynamics and loudness so that they can be balanced properly.

Compressors are excellent tools that offer your songs with richness and makes them complete. However, it is only through the right use of this equipment that your track could achieve satisfactory punches and volumes.

Equalisation is a procedure that could limit as well as boost frequencies. It is during this stage that you are required to emphasise the high and low notes properly.

A large number of artists have entered the loudness wars because they believe that the intensity of volumes determines the quality of a song. However, this is just not true. You cannot really increase the volumes of tracks with a hope to make them a hit in the commercial market. Musicians must remember that a track would only be able to impress listeners if it retains its quality over diverse media formats starting from amplifiers to earphones.

The A/B testing format in plugins is a great way to compare your mastered track with a song that is already ruling the industry. Here you could learn about those aspects that your track may be lacking and thus, incorporate them later.

The above-mentioned six essential tips are sure to help those musicians, who desire to master their song on their own. However, one must understand that procuring desirable outcomes is not that easy. Instead of getting disheartened due to continual mediocre results, musicians must really consider hiring a professional for mastering music online.

Audio mastering is known as the last level of post audio production. It is a process of balancing sonic components of an audio file (stereo mix). The bottom line of audio mastering is optimizing the sound for all media formats and systems. A traditional audio mastering is done by using tools like compression, stereo enhancement, equalization, and limiting.

Top 5 Audio Mastering Tips:

In the below section top 5 mastering tips will take place.

Take an A/B Test: It is always good to compare your song with another song of the similar genre. Let us suppose you are mastering a soft romantic song. So compare the feel of your song with another romantic song. It will help you to understand the quality of your output that you want. In A/B testing your focus should mainly remain on the width of the stereo record, compression level, volume and the importance of bass and vocals etc.

Consider the Delivery or the Output Media of Your Song: Before mixing and mastering services was a practice of making an audio loud, as loud as possible. But things have changed. Now gain is not the only thing that every sound engineer looks for. But in the era of digitalization, people listen to a song on the radio or via software. So, those days are gone when songs are mainly played on CD or DVD player. So the change of delivering media of an audio plays a vital role while mastering a song. An engineer should keep in mind the recent trend of audio delivering media while mastering a song.

There’s is No Shame in Going Back for Mixing Again: Mastering an audio cannot solve all problems to create your song a best hit of the year. There are few problems can appear during mastering a song that only mixing can solve. For example, if you find the vocal of a song is too quiet then it could bother you a lot. So if you have the authority on both mixing and mastering then there’s is no need of fixing a bad mix when you have the chance of re-record it again.

Use the Same Tool for Mastering All Songs of a Playlist: When you are mastering a lot of tracks all at once, especially for a single playlist or album then it is strictly suggested to use the same tools or software for mastering all the audio files. It will ensure the consistency for all your audio songs.

Keep Faith in Your Judgment: This is not a technical audio mastering tip. Although this is the most important thing that every audio mastering engineer should follow while mastering. It is really common to suffer from fader creep while mastering an audio. But the best thing you can do here, keep trust on your ears and believe on your own judgment.

Conclusion:

Hope these tips will help you to master your audio better. As a quick solution, you can also hire Online Audio Mastering Service provider for getting professional audio mastering service. So this is all for today. Hope you enjoyed reading the article.

Mixing and mastering are two significant procedures, which polishes a track and prepares it for a launch in the commercial market. Being extensive, tedious and time-consuming; both these processes need dedication, patience, hard work, competence and utmost professionalism. It is due to this reason that artists are often advised to send their tracks to experienced audio engineers, where they can get mixed and mastered.

But, a large number of contemporary musicians in an attempt to save money disregarded this instruction and indulged in the procedures on their own. They did suffer because the tracks never turned out to be seamless and pleasing. What could be the reason behind this? Do you think that they lacked the basic expertise? But isn’t it possible to cultivate the necessary skills through practice? So, is there any other reason? Of course. The professional audio engineers make use of advanced paraphernalia in an acoustically treated studio for the job that plays a significant role in churning out success.

In the following discussion, I am going to talk about some of the essential tools that reputed sound engineers use for mixing and mastering. Let us take a look at them as they are mentioned below in brief:

The foremost goal of mixing and professional audio mastering is to make a record ready so that it can keep its quality on all the devices it is played, starting from music systems to earphones. Well, to achieve this feat, you would require monitors that show poorly done stereo imaging, an uneven frequency response and other kinds of issues in details so that they can be got rid of.

The most critical equipment to be used in the processes is an EQ (equalisation) device. It is primarily used to end all sorts of phase distortions, which are generally caused by time delays between each track or at the beginning and at the end of the track. EQ is noted for maintaining the transients and waveforms in a song quite accurately.

Compressors are mainly used for regulating the groove in the track. The entire process of compression is aimed to either smoothen out or emphasise the basic punches kicks, and pumps in the song. You must choose a compressor carefully for there are some that go well with faster tracks while there are others that are ideal for slow songs.

The multiband dynamics are tools that are utilised to compress as well as limit different frequency levels in a song. This equipment is essential for it can amend a bad mix by controlling the bass, reducing the harshness, highlighting the vocals and fixing other impediments.

Apart from the aforementioned four, one would need signal analysers, processor and a variety of other stereo tools for getting done with affordable mixing and mastering services. These are key facets that offer a record with the necessary sparkle and make it melodious and sweet-sounding.

A large number of musicians in the modern era tend to make some common mistakes while mixing and mastering their recorded tracks. They must realise that the two mentioned procedures are extremely significant and hence not performing them properly would most surely affect your work and that too in the adverse ways.

If you desire your music album to please the listeners and do remarkable business in the commercial market, you need to choose an audio engineer carefully and avoid the slip-ups mentioned below in brief.

The Don’ts of Mixing and Mastering

Hiring your friend for the process of online mixing and mastering is not at all a viable solution. If he does not have the proper experience and tools, he is most certainly going to destroy your records. It is significant to contact someone professional, who understands the necessary changes that are to be made so that the records sound great when launched in the market.

If you think that you would be able to indulge in the process on your own, you are surely wrong. Just because you have recorded the songs and instruments properly does not mean that you would be able to mix and master it. There are many examples, where an artist has generated disastrous results while mixing and mastering a song on his own. A professional audio engineer is trained in the process. He has the necessary skills, gears, a proper studio to prepare the songs for the market.

Choosing a random engineer would be a blunder. You should conduct a thorough research, in order to detect the capabilities of varied experts out there. An ideal engineer would have certain samples on their site so that you can form an opinion about their work. You could also visit the testimonial section to view the customer reviews. Taking help from a veteran musician is also a good idea. He would be able to offer some valuable advice on hiring a mixing and mastering professional.

Hiring an audio engineer just because he is offering affordable mixing and mastering services would be unwise. Things that come with a low price tag catch our attention readily. However, before making the purchase, we ought to give a thought about the quality of the products. The same rule applies while you look for the services of an audio engineer. You wouldn’t want to comprise the standard of the tracks only to save some money, would you? That would be the perfect example of ‘penny wise, pound foolish.’

So, keep the aforementioned points in mind and try to avoid them while getting your songs mixed and mastered.

The sternest challenge for an independent artist arrives when their work has to compete with big-budget music albums of eminent performers. Although fabricating a track seem like a simple task, making the sound quality of that particular song as good and reliable as the other releases are not that easy. This difficult endeavour is successfully managed by competent sound engineers through certain exceptional techniques. In the following discussion, we would explore a few of those methods in details.

Frequencies- A song is just not made of one component. Several elements work together to form a particular track. Thus, it could be said that each one of them is significant and you cannot offer undue prominence to any one. Competent audio engineers make use of professional mixing and mastering to offer all the tracks with unified frequencies. This means each component of the arrangement is given its suitable space. Make sure that there is no fight of frequencies for it can make the tracks messy. For example, your song comprises two major instruments- keyboards and guitars. If the guitars occupy much of the low-mids, then make sure to push the keyboards towards the higher notes. You must create a hierarchy and clearly state how much audible spectrum would be covered by each instrument.

Balance- As a musician, you must have a clear understanding of the sound of all your tracks. You could sharpen your comprehension skills by listening to other songs of the same genre. Try to evaluate their balance: how loud are the guitars, drums and keyboards? Are they on the same level with the vocals? Once you have analysed a few of the reference materials, start assessing your own track: how much space does the sound of each instrument occupy? Are they overlapping one another? Are the vocals too quiet? Try to find answers to all these relevant questions and then arrive at a final decision. You need to arrange all the components in such a way that the music album acquires a definite balance. It is not necessary to adhere to the set rules but make sure to do things with acute precision, so that your album could create a buzz in the commercial market.

Bottom End-The low or bottom end plays a significant part in most of the songs because it is where the entire credibility of a track lies. A song that sounds frail at the end would not be able to compete with the contemporary tracks that make use of online mixing and mastering services. Unless you are into experimental music, every normal song at the low end must have enough clarity so that the kick and bass could have a free movement but any other instrument should not meddle that range. Remove the frequencies of pads, guitars, percussions and any other element that was in the arrangement. Work on kick and bass by reinforcing them and adjusting the EQ.

Sound Effects- Use the effects much wisely because an excess of it can destroy your entire track. Do not keep on adding reverbs wherever you can. Effects are used to make a stereo mix large. Equalise, filter, tweak and widen them so that they do not make your track sound cheap. At first, learn to control them and then use them in the track subtly.

The aforementioned techniques could make your songs sound professional and allow them to hit the music market with a bang. By following the above methods, your tracks would appeal listeners and sound exceptionally well through all devices starting from loudspeakers to earphones.

Mastering continues to be one of the tantalizing pursuits on which musicians want to be dexterous. With decades and development of technology, the mastering procedure has been the subject to colossal changes that made it further impossible to delineate out a precise learning method. Yes, you can enroll in music mastering course or scour the internet to learn about the steps before mastering your own album but the professionals have spelled out the importance of ‘experience’ in mastering. Without extensive practice, it’s virtually impossible to master the processes, moreover, innate creativity is another prerequisite.

It is truly said mastering is the concoction of science and creativity, technology irrefutably plays an important role but the artistic feel, taste of the person is also crucial. While music is a pure art form, the way instruments resonate and the right application of compression, equalization techniques are deeply rooted in science or better say the understanding and knowledge of these technical forces. Being an enthusiastic musician, you must be eager to explore the art of mastering process but before you start investing your time, it’s important to weigh up the viability of hiring professional mixing and mastering service and learning the skill. As its mentioned earlier music mastering process has undergone myriad of changes let’s have a basic glimpse on them-

Evolution of Audio Mastering

Though the basic work remains the same that is to prep up the album but the methods, related technology and tools have undergone transition. Initially audio mastering was designed to ensure a set of mixes would work impeccably on the vinyl format and in addition to that the music of the album was sometimes be tweaked to make it compatible for radio broadcast that was crucial for the promotion of the artists and the record albums.

In the era of vinyl records, owing to the two sides of the vinyl disc the song order was a cautiously weighted decision. It was important to determine whether the song would belong to side A or B and the total running time, the sequence of the song was decided in several ways specifically considering certain vibe or feeling.

Nowadays, the final mixes need to be sent via a hard drive, data storage device or FTP, no matter whichever media you have chosen be sure it must be on a format on which the mastering engineer can work unhindered. A clearly perceptible sound will help them to discern the flaws existed in the mix. You must be wondering how people in earlier days brought the mix to the mastering studio before the invention of such advanced data transfer procedure, prior the advancement and widespread use of computer, analogue tape was the medium to record and store the final mix. In the era of 80, digital tape took its place; the final mixes were recorded in digital tape in Reel-to-Reel format. The transfer process has been simplified over the decades, a greater part of the final mixes is now sent as digital audio files storing a hard drive and this has significantly eliminated the necessity of analogue to digital conversion. The most remarkable change in mastering technology came with the launch of compact disc in the year 1982; it completely changed the customary mastering techniques. Now with the commence of mastering music online it’s better to discuss with the mastering engineer about his preferred medium or simply follow the instructions mentioned on their website before you send the mix.

Mastering the recorded music is regarded to be the best thing one can perform to enhance the quality of the audio album, it’s the ultimate stage and literary the last opportunity to refine and polish the recording before duplication. The better your album will sound, the better chance it will obtain to gain acclamation from the music critics and aficionados. It’s the fine line between the success and failure of your album; if you are novice this will determine your future in this highly competitive music industry. Mastering denotes to the very procedure that ensures your album will sound clear and consistent in every existing music system.

An Elaborate Study on Music Mastering

The often-misunderstood supposition regarding mastering is the purpose is to make it louder while the true intent of music mastering is to achieve the best possible tonal balance and quality for the album. Contemplate mastering as the process of adding sparkle to your music to make it shine; it ensures that the first song doesn’t blow out the speakers with sudden upsurge while the second song of the album is hardly audible, the level of each song will be same and a general sense of cohesiveness will prevail throughout the recording. Besides rectifying the perceptible differences in volume, mastering is a subjective process.

Mastering was previously referred to the process where the record was being cut by the lathe for copying into vinyl. Online audio mastering service process still entails this procedure but now most of the recordings are replicated on CD or for internet publication. The span of the procedure has also expanded and now it has included several other methods like equalization, compression for balancing tone and stereo enhancement. With the main aim of improving the sonic quality of your album at this step, the level of each song or relative volume is modified, the spectral balance for each cut and overall album is also administered and the dynamic range of the songs is enhanced. Reverb is done to the final mix to render it three-dimensional feeling and correct the mere flat sounding record.Why Trust on a Professional Audio Mastering Engineer?

Why Trust on a Professional Audio Mastering Engineer?

Hopefully, this is enough to make you understand that audio mastering requires exhaustive knowledge and years of experience in this niche. Thanks to the introduction of online affordable music and mastering services, now even the aspiring musicians working with a constricted budget can also have the blissful touch of mastering. Owing to your delinquency or lack of aptitude in the art of mastering, the sound each song may belie and consequentially you may fail to deliver euphonious sound. Thus instead of relying on your little knowledge entitle the responsibility of mastering to professional mixing and mastering services. However, in the search of affordable service don’t settle down for an inexperienced, amateurish mastering engineer. Remember, an incompetent mastering engineer will boost the volume in name of mastering as, to our ear a louder sounding record while playing simultaneously with the original one seems to be more perfect.

Audio Master UK

I am the owner of online mastering studio based in South London - https://www.onlinemastering.org.uk. I provide services for musicians on budget from around the world. My exceptional customer service and competitive prices are something what musicians and independent labels find very appealing.